volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
It is utterly idiotic and disconnected from reality for anyone to present Ukrainian ascension to NATO as such a done deal.
Not only that, but such rhetoric only lends fuel to the Russian cause, so why promote the idea even if the person is foolish enough to believe it?
The DOJ is an executive branch agency, and "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."
As an entity of the executive branch, the DOJ has no where it can work EXCEPT for under the president.
It has no legal authority but that granted as it executes the president's direction.
Otherwise you're talking about a policing force that exists outside the rule of law, which, talk about authoritarian and problematic!
The DOJ works on behalf of the president in the US design of government.
The executive doesn't just prosecute people for no reason. He prosecutes to satisfy some incentive that he has, whether political or financial or to assert his own personal preferences on those he goes after.
And this ruling says that the executive can't legally send the police to enforce his policy assertions against you.
It sounds like you don't think something can be authoritarian without a significant profit on display, but I don't think that's a common element of that concept.
To me, it's authoritarian to have someone claiming authority over your life regardless of anything involving profit.
volkris
boosted
In 2020, I published* This is Fine: Optimism & emergency in the p2p network *(https://newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/this-is-fine)* *It laid out a clear argument that the #fediverse is irreparably vulnerable because of its p2p nature and political naivete:
*"Anyone with administrator access to an Instance can read anything that travels through that Instance’s infrastructure – including direct messages. The level of risk correlates with the number of cross-Instance interactions between users. If users from different Instances communicate, an attacker need only compel one Instance to reveal the direct messages between all of the interacting accounts. [...] In a peer-to-peer network without encryption, there’s no structure, no agreed-upon governance, and absolutely no protection. Compromising or compelling an Instance or its staff means that all of network traffic is laid bare to its assailant. [...] The decentralised community seeks to antagonise a powerful status quo whilst making tradeoffs that do not acknowledge how societies directly threaten their communities."*
Today, Kolektiva - a anti-colonial anarchist instance - announced an FBI raid of one of their admins, which included the seizure of an entire copy of the Kolektiva instance.
This is *literally* the kind of situation I warned about nearly three years ago.
If you're interested, there have been a couple of discussions about doing this in feature requests.
For example:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/21461
@lauren
Check out this discussion of the preview DDoS issue *from 2017*.
#Mastodon devs know it's an issue. They just don't really care too much.
You also get the gem of, "I can totally see this being a problem, but I also don't see a solution to it, because people want previews."
Once again the lead dev projects his personal preferences on all users.
Here's an example of a server operator worrying about EU compliance, just a post I saw today.
Yes, a lot of Mastodon servers are going to be in trouble :)
Well, I'm half joking.
In seriousness, I'm happy to admit that I don't know the details of the US regs, and if anyone does know the details I'm interested in learning.
BUT, from what I've seen, the EU regs are pretty broadly applicable, and there's no reason to think those Mastodon servers will be exempt, so yes, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if those Mastodon servers ARE going to be in trouble.
If the EU decides to enforce the regs against them, that is.
I also do see Mastodon server operators posting to this platform that they expect to be in trouble, so there's that.
I haven't really used CSS in maybe decades, so I wonder if you have an opinion on its development since then, or if that's just overshadowed by core problems.
For example, I remember CSS as seeming logical but with some glaring holes that needed filling, feeling incomplete.
I wonder if you feel that that was the case decades ago, and they either didn't fill those holes since then, or maybe they broke the logic through missteps, leaving it a mess now, or something else entirely.
The big reason I see #Meta wanting to federate #Threads is to tap into a potentially massive amount of free content that it can then display to its users.
It might be that for a relatively minor engineering expenditure they would be receiving quite a lot to keep their readers using their service.
I wouldn't even be surprised if the engineering expenditure is dwarfed by the legal expenditure as they, yes, try to figure out how in the world GDPR fits into this whole thing.
I think the difference is mainly due to the types of people who immigrated to this platform, rather than things like QT or UIs.
To be an early adopter here or to leave Twitter for this platform involves a certain filtering that selects for certain types of people.
And solves it usefully, not just wasting heat from lights.
@johncarlosbaez
I imagine not?
If you mean because of algorithms, well each one has benefits, but I mainly think of the additional point of failure of the cross-posting.
There are a lot of funny things there. For example, with ActivityPub the creator is no longer beholden to one company that they can't control but rather an untold number of federated instances that they can't control.
But my main reaction is that a lot of people focus on questions like, Will creators post on Threads? while overlooking that with federation Threads will tap into a massive amount of content for its readers.
Finally, DMs in ActivityPub are a bit different from how they exist in other platforms, as they aren't really a second stream but rather the same as any other public post, just with a smaller declared audience.
To say DMs will not be supported sounds like it might be an issue of terminology.
Oh yep, I didn't even think to mention that lots of these organizations are working with stretched budgets as it is.
I just don't think the EU would easily accept such a loophole.
It sounds like Meta would be anticipating or even intending the client to use the alternative backend, and I imagine that's enough for EU regulators to call them out.
Circling back, though, even if you're right and SCOTUS is wrong on that ruling, keep in mind that you're promoting the ability of the president to have sweeping power to prosecute citizens.
This is the kind of authoritarian thing you sounded so concerned about above.
Should the Court have ruled the way you preferred, based on precedent, it would have been promoting leadership using government power to impose leaders' wills on the people.
I think SCOTUS was correct in its reading of the statute, even in erring in the face of ambiguity not to allow the leadership that authoritarian power.
The solution is crystal clear, though: impeachment.
If Thomas really is as bad as so many of these stories say, then Congress should apply the solution they have in their hands and impeach the guy, removing him from Court.
OR, if he's not actually found to be as bad as all of these stories, if the stories are a bit out there, then it's not really a problem to solve.
Either way, impeachment is on the table, and that will work itself out.
volkris
boosted
@seachanger Last time #journalists wanted to join, they got defederated because some of the #fediverse thinks they're too inquisitive and promotional… 🙄️ https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalists-want-to-recreate-twitter-on-mastodon-mastodon-is-not-into-it.php
I think a lot of people wondering about #journalism on #Fediverse underappreciate issues of internal processes inside large, established news organizations.
They can't and don't turn on dimes, for better and for worse.
Divisions throughout the organization have consultation and input on such a change, ranging from the IT systems publishing content through marketing and even legal.
It just takes a lot of time and effort to review such an addition to their newsrooms, more than just setting up an instance and beginning to publish.
But yep, a design conducive to the industry and maybe a point of contact willing to work with interested outfits to guide them on board.
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
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